Let's face it: if you own a small business in this economy, you have to be and stay creative, innovative, and educated in order to turn a profit, or even just to stay afloat, it seems. The fact that you are still in business right now says your small business good practices are effective. As any business owner knows, however, more profit and less loss is always the goal. There are many ways to do that. You can increase the cost of your product or service. Decrease the pay of your workforce. Decrease the size of your workforce. The number of options is huge - almost inconceivable. But one way can be the best way: draw more internet users to your website.

Are you attracting new clients or customers? Do you have a small business website? Are you putting it to work in the least expensive and most efficient way possible? If you know about and are using Search Engine Optimization - or SEO - techniques, then the answer to all of those questions is presumably yes! If the answers are no, never fear; SEO is here!

If you are not using small business SEO to maximize the return on your small business website, then you need to ask yourself why! SEO is the process of using keywords in website content so natural (or organic) searches will return your website at or near the top of the search results. The more times you use a keyword or key phrase, the search engine will rate you more knowledgeable, reputable, or useful, thus showing your small business good name at the top of the list.

But why would you want your name at the top of a list for some search engine? Statistics show that people consistently click on results that appear on the first page of searches. If you can make it to the first page, or the top 10, your potential customers or clients will see your name first, bringing their business to you! If your name fails to appear at or near the top of the search results, these same potential clients or customers will see the name of one of your competitors! That is money out the door, before it came in the door, that you would not have spent any extra on attracting.

If you have never heard of small business SEO practices, don't worry. Maybe your competitors have managed to stay under the radar, as well. Considering, however, that small business good marketing techniques have stressed utilizing SEO since as early as the mid-1990s, the odds are against that. It's not too late, though. Your small business website - assuming it exists - doesn't need much to optimize its searchability.

Let's use an example to demonstrate how SEO works and the benefits it offers:

Alberto is the owner of Wacky Widgets, and has a small staff dedicated to marketing and his online presence. Before today, Alberto had no knowledge of small business SEO, what it was, how it worked, or how it could help him. After reading this article, he went to his internet browser, pulled up his favorite search engine, and typed "Wacky Widgets". He wasn't surprised when he didn't see his own website on the results; he didn't even understand how those results were generated. He was very shocked, though, to find his largest competitor at the very top of the list! Searching for his company had led him to his competitor! He knew he had to fix this, and fix it fast. He went to his marketing team and asked them to come up with a short paragraph to put at the bottom of every page located on the company website, using the keywords and keyphrases:

Wacky Widgets
best widgets
quality widgets
widgets for sale
wacky wacky wacky

This is what they came up with:

"Thank you for choosing Wacky Widgets! We are so happy to provide you with the best widgets at amazing prices. Our widgets for sale are some of the highest-quality widgets around, and we'll guarantee it every time! First time customers that order Wacky Widgets online get a wacky wacky wacky discount of 25% on their entire order...and FREE SHIPPING!"

After posting that to his website, Alberto was pleasantly pleased to see his sales skyrocket! Now he is constantly aware of and updating his internet presence, because he anticipates the importance it will play in his future business transactions.

If you haven't managed to take advantage of the benefits of search engine optimization yet, why are you still waiting? So you don't have a marketing team. Write something yourself! Did you know that professional SEO writers often advise their clients to have some spelling errors, just in case someone searching for something happens to misspell a word? Don't worry if you're not perfect! People on the internet are seeking information, services, and products. If you don't work hard to get them to see you, it will be impossible for you to provide them with any of the great things your small business has to offer.